Fed Govt to sanction telcos over poor service

The Federal Government has issued an ultimatum to telecommunications service providers to improve their services or faced sanctions.

Besides, the Nigerian Communications Commission has also concluded arrangement to check all promotions that are aimed at increasing subscribers’ base.

The Minister of Communications Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson, said attempts by providers to increase subscribers base is responsible for the congestion in the networks.

She said government is expected to come up with another detailed review of the quality of service indicator by December, stating that any operator that is found wanting would be appropriately sanctioned.

She said: “In the coming days, NCC would curtail or stop all promotions that either increase subscribers base, the subscribers minutes, or that are causing additional congestion on the network.

“ The second thing we are looking at, is if you recall, we fined the operators based on their not meeting the quality of service status, and we did work with them after the fines, and we agreed the term upon which they would upgrade their infrastructure and meet the new quality of service indicators.

We also agreed that in December, we would do another detailed review of the quality of service indicator, and any network operator that is found wanting will be appropriately sanctioned by the regulator.

“Today I had cause to brief Council on issues that affect over 100million Nigerians, and that is the issue of quality of service on our networks over an extended period of time.

She listed the pace at which operators have been investing in expansion, modernisation and upgrade of their infrastructure , as someof the reasons for the poor service delivery.